'Major eBay Scam' Suspect Arrested

The Macomb County Sheriff's Department has arrested one woman for allegedly selling stolen Chrysler navigational radios on eBay and said more suspects might be arrested in what authorities are calling a "major eBay scam."

Andrea Christina Hickman, 39, of Detroit was arrested and arraigned in the 41-B District Court of Clinton Township last week on charges of receiving and concealing stolen property and using a computer to commit a crime.

Macomb County Sheriff Mark A. Hackel announced in a news release that on Nov. 19, a detective arranged to buy a Chrysler navigational radio from the suspect at a prearranged location in Macomb County.

source

Turn In A Software Pirate, Collect $500

A tech industry group is offering consumers up to $500 for reporting software counterfeiters who sell their goods on online auction sites like eBay.

Under the plan offered by the Software & Information Industry Association, anyone who unwittingly buys fake software from an online fraudster can receive up to $500 if they report the scam.

The SIIA said it hopes tipsters will use the reward money to buy legitimate, replacement software, but under the program rules they're free to use it any way they want.

source

Woman faces prison time in eBay scam

MADISON WI — A Reedsburg woman faces up to 60 years in prison after a federal grand jury indicted her for defrauding bidders on eBay.

Christina M. Phillips, 28, was charged Tuesday with three counts of devising a fraud scheme by a grand jury sitting in Madison, according to a statement by the office of U.S. Attorney Erik C. Petersen. If she is convicted, she faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each count.

An investigation by Reedsburg police and FBI agents determined Phillips would offer items for sale on the Internet auction site, then send fake items to the highest bidder — or send nothing at all.

source

Ex-Neiman Marcus guard admits stolen store jewelry sold on eBay

A former Neiman Marcus security officer admitted to stealing from the Northpark store at least $200,000 worth of jewelry, which was then sold on eBay, the U.S. Attorney’s office said on Tuesday.

Manuel Alvarez, 37, of Mesquite, entered a guilty plea Tuesday to an information charging one count of transportation of stolen goods in interstate commerce and aiding and abetting, said U.S. Attorney Richard Roper’s office. Mr. Alvarez admitted to stealing at least 400 pieces of jewelry with a retail value between $200,000 and $400,000.

source article

Macon County Couple Arrested For Internet Fraud

Michael and Alice Sleeth of Oreana are facing charges of theft and Internet fraud. Authorities say they scammed more than $6000 out of on-line shoppers since 2002.

Authorities say the Sleeths posted carburetors and other car parts for sale on online auction sites like EBay and RacingJunk.com.

They say the couple would collect money from winning bidders, then send them the wrong auction item., or not send anything at all. Some items were sent in conditions other than what was described in the ad.

source article

Fraud an 'internet problem, not an eBay problem,' spokeswoman says

CALGARY (CBC) - EBay is not responsible for criminals who abuse its online auction service, said a company spokeswoman after CBC News reported on a Calgary man who lost $20,000 on an eBay transaction.

"That's an internet problem, not an eBay problem," Erin Sufrin said Monday about criminals engineering scams through the service.

Shaqir Duraj, a Calgary bakery owner, won an eBay auction for a car in October from what he thought was a reputable seller. But someone had actually taken over the seller's page in a scam known as hijacking.

source

Calgary man loses $20K after eBay sale hijacked

RCMP investigator says eBay trying to hide scam problem

A Calgary man is one of 1,000 Canadians who have been scammed on eBay through a tactic known as hijacking, and the RCMP says the online auction service is not co-operating with their criminal investigations.

Shaqir Duraj, a Calgary bakery owner, won an eBay auction for a car in early October. He thought he was dealing with a reputable seller with a 98 per cent customer satisfaction rating.

source

Norman man charged in alleged eBay scam

Nine charges of violating the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act were filed Thursday against a Norman man, for offering silver bars and coins for sale over eBay, and collecting more than $10,000 from nine potential customers without providing the merchandise, according to state Attorney General Drew Edmondson.

Chelsey Christopher Davis, 33, was charged in Cleveland County District Court after he allegedly he items under the names "superiorgallery" and "benchmarkcollectables" to five consumers from California and one consumer each from Texas, Arizona, Georgia and New York.

source

eBay urged to tackle MP3 fraud

Hundreds of eBay customers have signed a petition calling on the auction site to take action over alleged fraudulent activity involving MP3 players.

According to the online petition, fake MP3 and MP4 players are being sold on eBay that claim to offer higher storage capacity than they actually have.

The petition states: "MP3\MP4 players are being sold to unsuspecting buyers worldwide.These players are being listed as having 2GB\4GB and 8GB (Gigabyte) of storage capacity but in reality they have much smaller memory modules that have been manipulated (hacked) so that they read as larger than their true capacity."

source

Tiffany aims at eBay in counterfeit fight

NEW YORK (Dow Jones/AP) -- Tiffany & Co.'s top executive said Tuesday that pursuing litigation against eBay Inc. was more effective and economical at stopping counterfeit sales of its products than targeting individual sellers on the online auction site.

At a hearing in federal court in Manhattan, Michael J. Kowalski, the jewelry retailer's chairman and chief executive, said it has been very difficult to pursue individual sellers who list knockoffs on eBay, with little economic return. He described the counterfeit sellers as "phantasms," who have adopted new identities and returned to selling on the Web site.

news article

Mail thief who sold items on eBay gets 4 months in jail

A former leasing company executive who stole thousands of items from the mail, including a Tom Brady rookie card, and sold them on eBay has been sentenced Tuesday to 120 days in the Kane County Jail. Mark Hoggay, 51, of Geneva Township, who pleaded guilty to felony theft, was also sentenced to 4 years' probation.

Hoggay worked as vice president of human resources for a Bolingbrook leasing company that contracted with the Postal Service to store extra bins and lockers during periods of heavy mailing, said Assistant State's Atty. Justin Fitzsimmons. Hoggay, who had access to the secure room, picked items he liked and took them home in duffels, prosecutors said.

Chicago Tribune

Ebay Trojan morphs to snare motor victims

A sophisticated Trojan menacing eBay Motors users continues to circulate, according to researchers from Symantec, who say the malware has morphed three times in the last week in an attempt to evade detection.

Trojan.Bayrob is in constant contact with a fleet of control servers so it can be updated in real time - all the better to trick victims into making pricey fraudulent purchases. It regularly downloads fake pages that masquerade as authentic eBay content and program updates, according to an entry on the Symantec Security Response Blog.


source

Tiffany Accuses eBay of Failing to Stop Counterfeit Jewelry Sales

NEW YORK

A lawyer for Tiffany & Co. accused eBay Inc. on Tuesday of allowing the sale of tens of thousands of pieces of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry on its Web site; an eBay lawyer responded that Tiffany wasn't doing its share to protect customers.

The arguments in U.S. District Court in Manhattan came at the start of a trial to decide whether eBay can be blamed for the sales of silver Tiffany knockoffs on its Internet site since 2003.

source

Man sells $1M of fake Cisco computers on eBay

By BILL RANKIN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Cumming man who sold more than $1 million worth of counterfeit computer products on eBay pleaded guilty Thursday before a federal judge in Atlanta.

From 2003 until early this year, Todd Richard, 33, sold fake Cisco computer components by using several eBay account names and business addresses, federal prosecutors said. Richard was charged last month with trafficking counterfeit Cisco trademarks.

source

Teen Robbed During eBay Transaction

A Detroit teen was robbed at gunpoint when he met the person who sold him an item on eBay on Saturday afternoon, according to Southfield police.

The 17-year-old Aric Adams was the winning bidder for a pair of $1,100 Cartier sunglasses. The person who placed the item on eBay told him to meet at the entrance of an apartment complex at Providence and 9 Mile roads. When he arrived, the seller called from a restricted phone number and told him to wait there, according to police.

"I hear footsteps coming up to me, so I turn around and I get hit with a gun on the side of my neck. I fall on the ground and then two men were just kicking me on the floor. The other person, who had the gun on my face, he was looking for the money in my pockets. As soon as they got the money, they ran off," said Adams.

source article

Man gets two-year term for eBay scam

A former Sacramento man has been sentenced to two years in prison after bilking eBay consumers out of more than $93,000.

Gilbert Vartanian, 37, was sentenced Monday in federal court following his Aug. 7 conviction of committing fraud on eBay, according to a news release by the office of U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott.

Vartanian was found guilty on nine counts of mail fraud for selling, but never delivering, professional basketball and football tickets and Rolex watches.

source article

Retailers call for legislation to fight organized theft

U.S retailers lose about $30 million a year to organized theft, much of what is later sold on internet auction sites such as Ebay.

Retailers have called upon the U.S. Congress for legislation to combat this growing problem. Specifically, retailers have asked Congress to require online auction sites such as eBay to post the serial numbers of items for sale and to provide more information about high volume sellers.

"Operators of sites such as eBay have historically failed to provide any meaningful information to retail investigators," said Karl Langhorst, director of loss prevention for Randall's and Tom Thumb stores.

Robert Chesnut, SVP of rules, trust and safety at eBay, said it was reasonable "to think about what we could do about high-volume sellers."

It is not known if or how soon legislation is pending.

eBay employee 'torpedos' fraud trial

The trial of a UK man suspected of defrauding eBay users was scuttled after an employee for the online auction house abruptly left the island before offering key testimony.

According to the Herald Express, eBay employee Kevin Morgan arrived in Exeter on Sunday, but left on Wednesday morning before taking the stand because he was fed up with the wait.

"The trial has effectively been torpedoed by his leaving the country," prosecutor Martin Kenny said. "I would have thought eBay would have been keen to give evidence to allow the court to get to the bottom of this case."

source article - The Register

UK's eBay users scammed

LONDON, Oct. 21 Investigators in England uncovered fraudulent auctions on eBay resulting in large-scale scams targeting British users.

EBay users are being deceived into giving private e-mail accounts and other secure information by responding to fraudulent e-mails supposedly from the auction site.

Authorities tracked more than 30 cases to a German-based computer and bank account used in the swindle, The Sunday Times of London reported.

source

Conmen hijack eBay user identities

FOREIGN criminals are stealing the credentials of British users of the internet auction site eBay to perpetrate large-scale fraud.

An investigation has identified one German-based fraudster who hijacked more than 30 accounts and used them to fleece UK car buyers.

It comes as increasing numbers of eBay users report concerns about trading on the site.

Figures from the government-funded Consumer Direct advice line show that calls expressing concern about eBay transactions are averaging 22 a day.

article here

Fiendish Trojan pickpockets eBay users

Dan Goodin
The Register

Miscreants have unleashed a new strain of a sophisticated Trojan that targets eBay users by feeding them spoofed web pages containing fraudulent information about high-ticket purchases, The Register has learned. It has already contributed to an $8,600 loss by one eBay member.

The Trojan installs a scaled-down webserver on an infected machine that masquerades as eBay and several third-party destinations frequently used to sniff out fraudulent offerings, including Carfax.com, Autocheck.com and Escrow.com.

When a victim browses to one of these sites, the webserver creates a parallel universe of sorts, in which the victim sees counterfeit pages designed to counter fraud protection mechanisms offered by eBay and third-party sites.

source article

Phishers ease up on eBay, Paypal but move on to other sites

MANILA, Philippines -- The good news: Hackers have eased on phishing activities targeted at eBay and PayPal users. The bad news: They're looking for lesser-known websites to victimize.

Phishing is an attempt to criminally acquire sensitive user information on the Internet.

Data from antivirus firm Sophos shows 21 percent of total phishing email detected by its SophosLabs in September pretended to come from PayPal or its parent firm eBay. These are normally “spoof” or bogus email that trick users into giving their account details. Sophos said this was a “dramatic” reduction from a year ago, when 85 percent of these bogus messages claimed to be from eBay or PayPal.

source article

Undercover cop helps bust eBay scam (UK)

An undercover police officer posed as a postie to catch fraudsters using a house in Luton to receive mobile telephones won on eBay, after conning sellers into believing they had paid for them.

Temitope Otukoya, 28, and Olamrewaju Otukoya, 42, of Creswell Gardens, were both remanded in custody at Luton Magistrates' Court and will appear at Luton Crown Court next Friday.

Police discovered that fake Paypal emails were being sent out to sellers, telling them that money had been transferred into their account.
By the time they found the phones had not been paid for, the items had already been sent.

source article

Hacker breaks into eBay server, locks out users

A malicious hacker broke into an eBay server on Friday and temporarily suspended the accounts of a "very small" number of members, the company said.

"We were able to block the fraudster quickly before any permanent damage had been done. At no point did the fraudster get any access to financial information or other sensitive information," eBay spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said via e-mail.

eBay has "secured and restored" the affected accounts and is calling the affected users, she said, without specifying how many accounts the hacker accessed and tinkered with.

complete article

Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal Join Forces to Fight E-mail Fraud and Phishing Scams

SAN JOSE and SUNNYVALE, CA, Oct. 4 /CNW/ - Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal today announced a collaborative effort to better protect consumers against fraudulent e-mails and the dangerous scams known as phishing attacks. Starting today, eBay and PayPal customers worldwide using Yahoo! Mail will have a safer e-mail experience - they will begin receiving fewer fake e-mails claiming to be sent by eBay and PayPal. Yahoo! Mail is the first Web mail service to block these types of malicious messages for eBay and PayPal through the use of DomainKeys e-mail authentication technology.


The technology upgrade will be rolled out globally over the next several weeks to all users of Yahoo! Mail.

complete press release

Chinese government server used in Paypal phishing attack

IMAGINE OUR surprise when among the dozens of phishing e-mails that arrive to our inboxes was one message that leads not to a free hosting provider but to a .GOV.CN site URL. Hackers are apparently in control of a Chinese government web server, or someone at that site is engaged in phishing Paypal accounts.

The e-mail, like many others of that ilk, told us about the need to log-in due to "suspect activity". It reads "We recently noticed one or more attempts to log in to your PayPal account from a foreign IP address".

complete article from The Inquirer

eBay: Phishing likely to blame for members' data theft

eBay's security experts have determined that it's highly likely that whoever posted confidential information about its members in a company discussion forum this week stole the data via an e-mail phishing scam, an eBay spokeswoman said Thursday.

The perpetrator of the data disclosure on about 1,200 eBay members didn't hack into eBay systems, spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said in an e-mail interview, reiterating an assurance eBay made when the incident happened on Tuesday.

eBay is working with law enforcement to take action against the fraudster, she said, while declining to answer whether the person has been identified or caught. Because the situation is delicate, eBay can't fully disclose the information it has gathered, she said.

source

eBay shoplifter nabbed in France

BESANCON, France (AFP) - A debt-ridden French shoplifter who sold stolen supermarket items on eBay is to face justice after police became suspicious about her low-priced loot, officials said Thursday.

The 33-year-old woman, who is estimated to have stolen more than 85,000 euros' (120,000 dollars') worth of goods from the Leclerc store in her hometown of Doubs, eastern France, since 2005, is due to appear in court December 7 following her arrest.

Officers zeroed in on eBay vendor "RapidDVD" after coming across DVDs, video games, CDs and razor blades she was selling well below market price, still in their original wrapping.

source

Confidential Ebay Member Info Posted on Forum

Ebay.com reports on their blog that at some time this morning the names and contact information of some 1200 Ebay users were posted on their public "Trust and Safety" forum. The posts also appeared to contain members credit card information.

The forum has been shut down while Ebay and LiveWorld (their forums vendor) take steps to remedy the situation. Ebay reports that they are now in the process of attempting to contact affected members by phone.

Revealed: the eBay Banksy print fraud

Unauthorised prints by the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy have been sold on eBay as limited edition, signed works, by employees of the company which publishes and authenticates the artist’s works on paper, Pictures on Walls (POW). These have been stamped with a replica of the POW blindstamp and some of them carry forged signatures. The prices for the prints have then been raised by an illegal practice known as shill bidding in which sellers or their associates make offers for goods to inflate the price artificially.

source article

Tier-3 warns over hacking kits for sale on eBay

Tier-3, the behavoural analysis IT security specialist, has warned companies that hacker toolkits - which were previously confined to specialist hidden forums on the Internet - are now being sold openly on auction sites such as eBay.

"This is a serious development," said Geoff Sweeney, Tier-3's CTO, who added that, where previously would-be hackers had to score `brownie points' to gain access to the hacker forums and source the kits, the fact that they are now on open sale on eBay is very worrying.

"It basically puts high level hacking tools, including surreptitious trojan loaders and Web site hacking utilities, into the hands of almost any Internet user - including novices - providing they have an eBay and Paypal account," said Sweeney.

source article at onrec.com

The Problem of 'Fake' eBay VeRO Members

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

Many eBay sellers have disputed the legitimacy of VeRO claims regarding copyright and trademark rights. But some have also begun complaining about the legitimacy of the members themselves. They say some VeRO members do not have the rights to the intellectual property they claim, and use eBay's program to remove sellers' listings.

A seller named Tom who said eBay pulled three of his listings because of reports by a fake VeRO member, said, "If this keeps up, they will put me and a lot of their sellers out of business. And unless abated, these skammers now know they can claim anything and get away with it."

source article here

Police Probe eBay Equipment Sales

Deerpark — The Deerpark police commission is investigating a police sergeant who is accused of listing department equipment for sale on eBay.

Sgt. Liz Sullivan confirmed yesterday that she has been suspended with pay since Aug. 15. "I have not been told why by any Deerpark officials," said Sullivan, who declined to comment further about the matter.

An outside agency informed the town that Deerpark police equipment was listed on the online auction site eBay, Deerpark Supervisor Mark House said. The equipment, which he wouldn't identify, is now in the town's possession.

source

Cosmetics group L'Oréal reports eBay to the police

The cosmetics group L'Oréal is no longer prepared to stand idly by and watch counterfeit perfume by brands such as Giorgio Armani and Lancôme being sold on the Internet auction platform eBay. According to media reports the company has reported the online auction house eBay to the police in France, Belgium, Germany, the UK and Spain. "We have noticed that the sale of counterfeit perfumes has increased dramatically; this not only constitutes a trade problem but also creates a problem of trust for our customers," the French media report a spokesman of the company as saying. According to L'Oréal the company had engaged in talks with eBay with the intention of coming to an amicable solution to the problem. The talks had, however, failed to yield any concrete results, the company observed.

source article

Seattle Man Gets Two Years for eBay Fraud

A Seattle man has been sentenced to two years in prison for selling computers and cameras on eBay but never actually delivering the goods.

Over a four-year period, Jordan Dias, 40, collected more than US$94,000 from victims who thought they were purchasing items from a legitimate seller, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday in a statement.

source article

Botnet Steals eBay Accounts

Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Online auction site eBay has been targeted by identity thieves, who are wielding a botnet that uses brute force to uncover valid account log-in information, a Tel Aviv-based security company said Monday.

The attacks against eBay Inc. may have started as long ago as early August, said Ofer Elzam. He said that he and other researchers at Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. have not been successful in notifying eBay of their weekend findings.

According to Elzam, the product manager of Aladdin's eSafe threat-protection line, the brute-force attacks are launched by a large botnet that the identity thieves have built using a sophisticated, multistage campaign that begins with compromised legitimate Web sites.

"My best estimate is that there are at least 300 compromised sites," said Elzam, who noted that they are spread worldwide and in several languages.

source article here

PPR threatens to sue Ebay over fake goods

PPR, the French conglomerate that owns Gucci, Bottega Veneta and several other luxury goods brands, is threatening legal action against Ebay if the online auction site does not crack down further on counterfeits sold on its website.

In an interview with the Financial Times, François-Henri Pinault, PPR's chairman and chief executive, said that his company had been in talks with Ebay for several months in an attempt to improve the policing of fakes sold by the site's members.

source article

Auction on eBay leads to military theft charges

A staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force and his mother face federal charges that they stole high-grade equipment used on military helicopters and sold it overseas over the Internet.

Leonard Allen Schenk, who was assigned to the 20th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, near Mary Esther, also is charged with trying to hire an undercover agent to kill a possible prosecution witness, not publicly identified, sometime between May and June.

Schenk is scheduled for an 11 a.m. arraignment Monday before U.S. Magistrate Miles Davis on 21 charges, including racketeering, witness tampering, federal trade violations and soliciting murder.

source article

'Notorious' eBay fraud sentence

A 20-year-old "obsessed" with defrauding customers of the internet auction site eBay has been sentenced to two years' custody.

Philip Shortman, from Cwmbran, south Wales, was sent to a detention centre for another £45,000 eBay fraud in 2005.

The judge at Newport Crown Court said his deception "strikes at the system" of internet trading "as a whole".

In the latest fraud he was jailed for conning eBay users of £14,000 and breaching a suspended jail term.

news article from BBC news

Historical Society Member Accused Of Selling Artifacts

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- Plattsburgh police said a board member of the Clinton County Historical Association stole items from the historical museum and listed some of them on eBay.

Police said the President of the Historical Association called them after a sword presented to Captain William B. Pratt in 1863 was stolen from the museum and posted on eBay.

source article

eBay fraudster loses home and car (UK)

A Tolworth man jailed for Kingston's biggest ever counterfeit scam has been ordered by Kingston Crown Court to sell his flat and his car to pay back the profits of his crime.

Simon Waugh, 45, was jailed for 12 months in March after building up a criminal business with a £170,000-a-year turnover by importing fake designer clothes from India and selling them as genuine on eBay.

He appeared in Kingston Crown Court on Monday for a confiscation hearing, in which Judge Campbell ordered him to sell his flat in Tolworth Close and his Vauxhall Cavalier car to pay back £55,000, about one third of the proceeds from the scam.

The money will be divided between the Treasury, the Crown Prosecution Service and the trading standards department at Kingston council - with the council believed to be receiving about £18,000 for its role in the investigation.

source article

Know what you're buying before bidding online

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The grungy hotel room was reeking of smoke. The bathtub was rusty. The bedspread and furnishings were dingy relics.

But I couldn't leave.

I'd already paid $155 in an online travel auction for the Queen Mary Hotel room -- $91 for the room, $20 commission, $24 in taxes and $20 to upgrade to a room with a window. I'd taken a risk. And lost.

Online travel auctions promise fabulous bargains on vacations, hotels and airfare to glamorous places, playing on travelers' desires to get a steal of a deal. Sometimes they work out wonderfully. Sometimes they don't.

"Since the beginning of man, people have always wanted more for less," says Greg Donewar, manager of the federal Internet Crime Complaint Center in Fairmont, W.Va.

"If it sounds too good to be true, beware."

Ah, the old caveat emptor.

complete article here

Beware of Online Shysters

By Paul Korzeniowski
E-Commerce Times

The illegal downloading and selling of items, such as music and videos, has been widely reported and continues to be a hot potato. "Some counterfeiters are so bold that they advertise movies that have not yet been released," said Andrew Horton, product management director at MarkMonitor.

The Internet has emerged as a great place to shop for someone looking for a good deal. Price comparison sites ensure that consumers pay as little as possible, so they often end up with tremendous bargains.

However, the adage "If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is" applies to some of these transactions. Shysters have established bogus Web sites advertising Email Marketing Software - Free Demo name brands for a fraction of their typical costs. These businesses are booming: Online protection company MarkMonitor expects online sales of knockoff goods in 2007 to reach US$119 billion, up from $84 billion last year.

complete article

Romania a global hotspot for eBay fraud

eBay has taken the extraordinary step of calling a press conference in Australia to discuss the problem posed by Romanian fraudsters.

eBay said it was shocked to discover that many Romanian police stations, prosecutors and magistrates had never used a computer. This lack of access to cyber crime fighting tools was allowing internet crime to go unchecked.

The company found law enforcement agencies had been trying to investigate online fraud at the same internet cafes being used by the fraudsters, "which was a huge concern to us", said Mat Henley, of the eBay global fraud investigation team.

article here

Beware: False Paypal/Skype credit card charges

By now, you've learned to ignore unsolicited e-mail seemingly from PayPal, eBay or other financial site telling you your account needs to be updated. PLEASE tell me you ignore these phishing messages!

There's something much more sinister to be wary of: My theory is a hacker got into a major credit card database and is charging small amounts to user cards under the guise that it's a PayPal Skype charge.

I discovered this charge on my own credit card in early May. My credit-card company spotted it first and stopped all transactions. I canceled my card to be safe and didn't think too much more about it.

link to article

Two plead to selling counterfeit software on eBay

As the Department of Justice cracks down on software counterfeiters, two more defendants have pleaded guilty to selling bootlegged factory software on eBay

Two more defendants have pleaded guilty to charges of criminal copyright infringement for selling counterfeit software with a retail value of nearly $6 million on eBay Inc., the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Robert Koster of Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Yutaka Yamamoto of Pico Rivera, California, both pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, the DOJ said in a news release. The two pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit software from Rockwell Automation.

complete article

Jewelry merchant on eBay fined $400,000

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A jewelry company on eBay Inc. that allegedly bid on its own auctions to illegally drive up prices by as much as 20 percent agreed to pay $400,000 in restitution and penalties, the New York state attorney general's office said on Saturday.

Ezra Dweck and employees of his company, EMH Group, placed more than 232,000 such bids worth some $5 million over about a one-year period, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office said.

Dweck and EMH Group have also been banned from the online auction industry for four years under the terms of the settlement agreed to by the parties, Cuomo's office said.

complete article

Software pirate to pay $205,000 fine for illegal eBay sales

The defendant also agreed to help authorities ID others involved in the scheme

May 22, 2007 (Computerworld) -- A software pirate who sold illegal copies of Symantec Corp. software on the online auction site eBay Inc. has agreed to pay a $205,000 fine.

In an announcement today, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) trade group, which filed suit in the case on behalf of Symantec -- a SIIA member -- said the defendant has also agreed to assist authorities in identifying the parties who actually made and distributed the illegal software that was sold.

Keith Kupferschmid, senior vice president of intellectual property for the Washington-based SIIA, said the name and location of the defendant is being kept secret under the terms of the settlement.

source article here

Bucks County man pleads to six counts in eBay coin auctions case

A Bucks County man who authorities say fleeced dozens of people on eBay avoided trial by agreeing to plead guilty to six counts of mail fraud.

According to an indictment, Todd Rabenold, 38, of Quakertown, stole $18,741 from at least 53 victims who replied to his Internet auctions for "rare and old" coins.

In each case, federal prosecutors said, Rabenold took customers' payments but never sent any goods.

Rabenold, who could not be reached for comment, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Source

eBay condemned for allowing "rampant" ivory trade

LONDON (Reuters) - The elephant, the world's largest land mammal, is being threatened with global extinction by a "rampant trade" in ivory on the eBay online auction site, animal welfare campaigners said on Tuesday.

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said it had conducted a survey in Britain, Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States and tracked more than 2,200 elephant ivory items listed on eBay websites.

It found more than 90 percent of the listings breached even eBay's own wildlife policies.

complete article here

New eBay Phishing mail scares users into revealing information

What do you do when you receive an email from an online financial company that you regularly deal with, informing you about the completion of a transaction that you never did in the first place? There’s a good chance you might lose your senses for a short while. That’s exactly what people behind this new Phishing scam targeting eBay customers are hoping for!

The advanced AntiVirus, AntiSpam and Content Security solution provider MicroWorld Technologies says a new email in circulation tries to pilfer confidential account information of eBay customers by sending them a tricky phishing mail. Appearing as a routine conformation message from eBay, it tells the recipient that she has sent $249.20 to an email address at aol.com.

Then it shows a Transaction ID and Subject to numb the unsuspecting victim. To view the details of the transaction, she is told to click on a link. The mail ends with a ‘thank you for using eBay’ line, deliberately written to aggravate the user. Once she clicks on the ‘view details’ link, a new page opens up where her account information will be captured by online criminals behind the scam.

complete article here

Man Sentenced For Selling $1 Million In Counterfeit Software On eBay

A Michigan man has been sentenced to five months in prison and five months home confinement for selling more than $1 million worth of counterfeit computer software on eBay.

James Thomas, 38, of Belleville, Mich., was sentenced late last week in U.S. District court in the Eastern District of Michigan. At his guilty plea on Dec. 13, 2006, Thomas admitted that he purchased counterfeit Rockwell Automation software through eBay and then duplicated and resold the copyrighted material to other eBay users, according to a U.S. Department of Justice release.

Between Aug. 26, 2003 and Sept. 7, 2004, using two different eBay user names, Thomas sold counterfeit copies of Rockwell Automation software in 49 separate eBay auctions, receiving more than $14,625. The actual retail value of this software was in excess of $1 million.


Source Article

Writer bought chemicals, police badge on eBay before Halloween attack

NEW YORK (Court TV) - A writer accused of a sadistic Halloween sex attack on a former colleague began acquiring supplies up to 10 months before the assault, according to the eBay transaction records prosecutors presented Thursday at his sex abuse trial.

Under the user names "drgroovy" and "gulagmeister," struggling journalist Peter Braunstein purchased chloroform, the firefighter uniform and the smoke-bomb materials that he used in a 13-hour attack on a former colleague from Fairchild Publications, where he worked as a writer for Women's Wear Daily until 2003.

After his dismissal from the magazine and a break-up with a girlfriend, his lawyers say, he became unhinged, and the stress culminated in the attack on Oct. 31, 2005, in the victim's Manhattan apartment.

Source Article

Teacher accused of selling student's coat on eBay

HILLSBORO, Ore. - A first-grade teacher in Hillsboro is accused of trying to sell a student's coat on eBay.

Elizabeth Logan, 42, is facing theft and felony computer crime charges and is on paid administrative leave from Jackson Elementary.

The teacher was arrested Feb. 6 after the mother of a third-grader at the school complained to school officials and Hillsboro police.

The mother said she went shopping for a replacement jacket on eBay after her daughter's Columbia Sportswear jacket disappeared and did not show up in the school's lost and found.

The mother found a seemingly identical coat on eBay and noticed that the seller was from Hillsboro.

Source Article

Prison forced to change locks after keys sold on eBay

ANAMOSA, Iowa -- A 135-year-old penitentiary changed some of its locks after keys to the maximum-security prison were apparently sold on eBay.

The keys belonged to a locksmith who retired from Anamosa State Penitentiary in 1974. He died two years later and when his wife died last year, an auctioneer was hired to sell off the estate, which included the keys.

Someone bought the keys and put them on eBay.

Source

Handbags sold through ebay were counterfeit (UK)

BRICKLAYER Alan Foulkes, who sold counterfeit designer handbags on ebay, the internet auction site, has been ordered to hand over £25,000.

The Recorder, Nic Parry, gave Foulkes six months to pay but he will serve two months in jail if he does not pay up.

Foulkes, 47, of Plas Uchaf, Towyn Way West, Towyn, had admitted selling an item in contravention of the Trade Marks Act, two charges of possessing goods with false trade marks, and he asked for 25 similar offences to be considered.

Mold Crown Court heard in January how he sold Louise Vuiton handbags on ebay under the seller’s name of Mabon1.

Story is Here

Worldwide eBay Fraud Scheme Involving Over 5,000 Victims

Rachel Reyes, age 29, of Williamsburg, Virginia, was sentenced today to 55 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $415,754.84 in restitution, in connection with her role in distributing fraudulent celebrity memorabilia items on eBay. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and, Cassandra M. Chandler, Special Agent in Charge, Norfolk Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, made the announcement after Reyes’ sentencing today before United States District Judge Walter D. Kelley, Jr.

According to court documents, Rachel Reyes, her husband Jeffrey Reyes, and her mother, Nancy Selisker, operated their own eBay accounts for the sale of the counterfeit memorabilia, which included record albums and photographs of celebrities with forged signatures.

Source Article Here

Ebay: the counterfeit capital of the world

From 247WallSt
Douglas A. McIntyre
Streetinsider.com

Imagine this. Some large brand companies believe that 99% of the items sold under their names on Ebay are counterfeit. Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior are suing the online auction company to try to get fake versions of their products off Ebay's site.

According to the FT; "One designer clothing and accessories brand said it had seen the number of fakes using its brand name on Ebay rise dramatically in the past year, from 16,400 in 2005 to 20,827 in 2006."

What is not an open question is why the US government is spending its time complaining to China about pirated and counterfeit items sold in the big Asian country when it could just go over the Ebay headquarters and watch the world's best fakes being sold on any PC in the universe.

Source Post

FBI halts this medal's orbit on eBay

By Josh Noel
Tribune staff reporter


The eBay posting promised a one-of-a-kind, and sure enough it was: a Presidential Medal of Freedom made for James Lovell, commander of the nearly disastrous Apollo 13 space mission.

After two days of bidding in mid-January, the price was at $5,000 and still likely to soar.

"This really belongs in a museum for many to see," the seller wrote. "YOU WILL NOT FIND ANOTHER ... EVER."

The seller, a woman who frequently sells on eBay, found a taker: the FBI.

The red, white and blue decoration, highlighted by a five-pointed star and etched with the name "James Arthur Lovell Jr." on its back, is in the FBI's Chicago office, and agents are trying to solve the mystery of how it slipped away from the government.

Source Article

eBay under fire from the beauty industry

At the European Intellectual Property Rights Forum, held in Paris, France on March 20 and 21, anti-counterfeiting bodies called for the law to be strengthened to protect brands from the online sale of both unauthorized and counterfeit goods.

Much of the negative attention has been focused on online marketplace eBay. In the US alone, gray market and counterfeit beauty trade on eBay “has been tracked to upwards of $100m in lost revenues per year,” Joe Loomis, president of brand protection at online monitoring firm Net Enforcers tells CosmeticNews.

In Europe, Guido Baumgartner, director of global brand protection, Coty Prestige / Lancaster Group GmbH says that “[eBay] is a substantial problem for us, with not only gray market but also counterfeit and stolen goods”.

Source Article

Lock Your Digital Door

Motley Fool

Common sense says that you should lock your doors and windows to prevent thieves from entering your house. The advice is no different when dealing with digital crooks.

According to the FBI's Crime Complaint Center, computer users logged more than 270,000 cases of potential Internet-based fraud during 2006, resulting in $198.4 million in losses -- or $724 per complaint.

Sadly, few of these schemes were particularly sophisticated. Nigerian email fraud, for example, had the highest median loss, at $5,100. That's why fellow Fool Bill Mann has said that if it's from Nigeria, hit delet.

But suspiciously polite Nigerians have nothing on auction fraudsters, to whom the FBI attributed 44.9% of complaints. Auction fraud, as it turns out, is not unlike what the sub-Saharan scammers proffer.

Source Article is Here

Indiana Man Gets 27 Months for Selling Counterfeit Software on Ebay

March 28, 2007 -- WASHINGTON

An Indiana man has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for selling more than $700,000 worth of counterfeit computer software on the eBay Internet auction site, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Susan W. Brooks, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced today.

Courtney Smith, 36, of Anderson, Ind., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sarah Barker of the Southern District of Indiana for selling counterfeit computer software over the Internet in violation of criminal copyright infringement laws.

At today’s guilty plea and sentencing, Smith admitted that he purchased counterfeit Rockwell Automation computer software through the eBay Internet auction site and then duplicated and resold the copyright protected software to other eBay users. Between March 6 and May 26, 2004, Smith sold counterfeit copies of Rockwell Automation software in 32 or more separate eBay auctions, receiving $4,149.97. The actual retail value of this software was in excess of $700,000.


Source Article

2 PA Men Face 35 Years for Reselling Stolen Autos on Ebay

Two Pennsylvania men have been sentenced to a combined 35 years in state prison for their roles in an auto theft ring responsible for thefts of more than $3 million worth of vehicles, according to New Jersey Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw.

According to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown, Dariusz Grabowski, also known as Derek Grabowski, 37, Lake Ariel, Pa., was ordered by Superior Court Judge Scott J. Moynihan in Union County to serve 20 years in state prison, with eight years parole ineligibility, and to pay more than $725,000 in restitution.

In addition, Grabowski's brother, Krzysztof Grabowski, 26, also of Lake Ariel, was ordered to serve 15 years in state prison, with seven years parole ineligibility, and to pay more than $725,000 in restitution.

.....Fraud Prosecutor Brown reported that Dariusz Grabowski admitted he falsely obtained more than 130 key codes from Key Code Express in Florida, as well as 36 key codes from the Jameson Code Service and six key codes from the Key Quest Inc. key service. He obtained the key codes so that other members of the enterprise could steal vehicles, frequently from automobile dealerships, and so that the stolen vehicles could be re-tagged and sold on eBay. He admitted that he was involved in the sale of at least 42 stolen vehicles utilizing eBay.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2007/03/27/78112.htm

TEMPUR exposes counterfeit mattresses on Ebay

As the popularity of visco-elastic mattresses continues to grow, brand leaders TEMPUR are battling to protect consumers from the increasing number of counterfeit products being sold on the internet. Sellers on both eBay and other online bed distributors claim to offer ‘genuine’ TEMPUR Products at low prices, when in fact these products are lower quality copies.

The TEMPUR Material was originally designed by NASA and was used in space-suits today to protect astronauts from the enormous g-forces experienced during lift-off and flight. TEMPUR bought the commercial license for the material in the 1980s and have since perfected it for home and medical use – they are still the only commercial company licensed to use this material.

For the last six months TEMPUR have been working hard to eradicate people selling counterfeit products. Working closely with eBay and their solicitors, TEMPUR are eliminating offending sellers and removing false claims from other websites.

Source Article

Peoria Man gets 4 Years in Ebay Fraud Case

Man scammed customers out of $800,000


Friday, March 23, 2007
By ANDY KRAVETZ
of the Journal StarPEORIA - A man who bilked eBay users out of $800,000 was sentenced to just more than four years in federal prison Thursday. Anthony L. McEnroe, 36, whose address is listed in court records as 3717 N. St. Michael Ave., apologized and told U.S. District Judge Joe McDade that he wanted to fill the orders from the online auction house but wound up making bad business decisions that drained his money.

His decisions cost hundreds of eBay customers money. When the FBI raided his warehouse in Bloomington in 2001, they found $100,000 of commemorative state quarters that he was supposed to mail off to buyers.

McEnroe held dozens of auctions to "pre-sell" each of the 50 state quarters before they were released by the U.S. Mint. Customers on eBay would bid on the right to get the popular coins first. But he never filled the orders.

Source Article Here

Ebay Software Bargains and Pitfalls

By Jim Finkle
Reuters

BOSTON (Reuters) - One of the cheapest places to buy software is on Ebay, where merchants sell programs that come directly from manufacturers, saving them from paying a mark-up to distributors.

But it may also be a risky place to shop, as it can be tough to discern good values from scams.

Consumers Union -- which tracks Web retailers and advises consumers on Internet shopping through its ConsumerWebWatch.org service -- urges buyers to use common sense.

"If it sounds too good to be true, it is," says Beau Brendler, director of Web Credibility for the site.

A Reuters reporter bought four popular software titles through Ebay stores, which unlike auction operators sell products at fixed prices. Three of the titles worked flawlessly; the fourth was dead on arrival.

Story is Here

Auction Fraud at Top of FBI's 2006 Crime Report

The FBI / National White Collar Crime Center has released it 2006 Internet Crime Report. According to their report, the most reported internet crime offense by far was auction fraud, which comprised 44.9% of referred complaints. Of that number, non delvered merchandise and/or payment comprised 19% of the complaints, while check fraud accounted for another 4.9%

In an interesting aside, the Nigerian letter scams accounted for the highest median losses among individuals ($5,100). Amazingly enough, it appears people are still falling for it.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center also reports that recent high activity scams included hit man scams, phishing attempts associated with spoofed sites, and counterfeit checking scams. Complete report is here. (PDF file)

Australian eBay thief made huge profit

A man stole $AUS42,000 ($NZ46,000) after hacking into eBay and Australian bank accounts last year, with eBay now set to trial individual security keys to protect members.

The Commonwealth Bank has had online security keys, or "key fobs", since January. The devices are small electronic gadgets that generate a number that must be typed into accounts to verify access and transactions.

Dov Tenenboim, 21, of North Bondi, used his home computer to hack into at least 90 different eBay seller accounts last year, according to police.

After hacking into the eBay accounts of Wendy Runge and Kathy Gill, he sold $AUS13,482 ($NZ15,000) worth of nonexistent Apple iPod music players. After each sale he would direct his victims to pay for the goods by transferring money into the bank accounts of his accomplices.

Complete article here

Stolen US Civil War documents sold on eBay

Criminal charges were filed against a collector who stole 165 Civil War documents from the National Archives and sold them on eBay, US prosecutors said Friday.

Denning McTague was working as an unpaid intern in Philadelphia when he purloined historic paperwork that included a War Department letter informing troops of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, according to US Attorney's Office spokesman Richard Manieri.

"Evidently he put documents in a backpack and walked out," Manieri told AFP. The bulk of the stolen letters concerned munitions and supplies, but one was written by Confederate general James (Jeb) Stuart, Manieri said.

Story is here

Scammers Use eBay's Message System to Troll for Victims

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
March 16, 2007

When an eBay seller opened an email received through eBay's message system this week, it read, "If you need additional income, we have an open position as a mediator for selling items on ebay. To learn more, open www.tradeportal1.org and enter (Code removed by editor) on prompt." The purported shopper who sent the email to the seller using eBay's "Ask Seller a Question" feature had zero feedback and had registered on eBay the same day the email message was sent.

......What concerned the recipient most was that her name appeared in the message, and that the message showed up in her "My Messages" section of eBay, proving the sender used eBay's mail system. She felt this gave the email an air of legitimacy, and she said she was sure she was not the only one to receive the email. "You KNOW that newbies may (will) click that link and who knows what will happen."

Read Complete Article Here

Judge Judy Destroys an Ebay Scammer

Romanian Hacker Broadcasts eBay Customer Accounts

Lisa Vaas
eWeek.com


eBay has confirmed that, early on the morning of March 8 EST, an alleged Romanian hacker calling himself "Born_To_Scam_American_Guys" posted records for 15 eBay users on an eBay forum for between 40-60 minutes before the company removed them.

The posts were put up on the Trust & Safety board. According to other forum members who claimed to have taken part in the discussion and begged eBay to take down the information, the hacker signed in under a hijacked account and began taunting others, with the final result being the posting of the 15 accounts.


According to Firemeg.com, a site dedicated to eBay watching, the post that kicked it all off appeared at 1:52 EST on the forum. The initial post, according to Firemeg.com, reads:

"read many opinions here.... All I saw it's just [misspelled obscenity]....Alot of things about scamms..stupid things I think. Romanian guys are the best boys !!!! We are in each country...each city...and every day alot of money from your pocket intro in pur bank accounts....You know why ?? I will tell you my opinion...because you are so stupid ..... anyone can scam you very easy....not only with fake escrow and shipping websites....

"For us nothing is not imposibile....Paypal...bank accounts...credit cards...spam....wire transfers... alot of things boys !!! WHy ??? Because we are the best !!!! Let's ask you something : what make the american and canadian boys at 14-15 years old ????? Eat burgers at Mc'Dolnalds and watch naked girls on internet porno webpages.... Romanian guys at 14-15 years old scam people...learn how to build a profesional website....how to hack a internet server and many more another "bad" things....

Complete Article Here

Attacks on eBay Continue, While Cover Up Machine Rolls On

It has been over two weeks now since a daily bombardment of scam listings started appearing on eBay.com, allegedly perpetrated by Romanian hacker, Vladuz. This current wave of fraudulent listings numbers between 1-3 million fake listings per day. eBay Inc. has gotten better at catching them and having them disappear before too many people are exposed to them. New threats are starting to emerge on the security front for eBay, and they're doing the best they know how to cover up the current situation and deflect possible bad exposure from the new threat.

On Sunday, we watched first hand as eBay Trust & Safety battled the scammers. A common search string was posted to a thread on the T&S eBay discussion board, which is currently discussing the attacks. This search string when plugged into the eBay search revealed over 500 obvious scam listings by a couple of different sellers for high ticket items with low starting bids and text in the description that led potential buyers to email for a Buy It Now price.

Same basic MO of many scams recently. Over the next several hours and into the evening, the number of listings fluctuated between 120-600 scam listings, as eBay worked to remove them from the site. By the next morning, there were only five remaining listings to be found using that particular search string. Many of the listings listed San Jose (eBay's headquarters are there) as the location, but the seller was registered in Canada, and used pictures from completely listings on eBay for the listings.

Conplete Article is Here

Ebay.co.uk Moves to Stop Pirates

Ignorance of the law is no defence in court, so people who might be flouting copyright regulations unknowingly are being targeted by a new information campaign.

eBay, the popular online auction site, has teamed up with the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) to educate consumers on how to buy and sell DVDs safely.

Garreth Griffith of eBay.co.uk said: “Warning our customers of the dangers and penalties associated with the illegal trade of counterfeits, as well as educating them on how to stay safe, is vital to keeping eBay a secure place to trade.

Click Here for Ebay.co.uk FACT Guide

Source:
www,webuser.co.uk

eBay users targeted by advanced Trojan

eBay users are being targeted by an advanced Trojan that attempts to redirect traffic so it can silently bid on a car from the auction site's car site, Symantec is warning. It is the latest security headache for eBay, which has faced an onslaught of complaints from some users who say fraud on the site has increased to unacceptable levels over the past few months.

Trojan.Bayrob implements a proxy server so that traffic intended for eBay is instead sent to one of several sites controlled by the attacker. Traffic is redirected by changing settings corresponding to at least six eBay URLs in the victim's hosts file. Once connected to rogue servers, Bayrob is programmed to download configuration data, including a variety of php scripts.

least one of the scripts, Var.php, downloads variables such as tokenized versions of eBay pages designed to dupe a victim into thinking they are legitimate. One such page spoofs eBay's "Ask a question" section, which allows prospective buyers to - wait for it - ask sellers questions.

Complete Article Here

Ebay Patches Sign-in Page Vulnerability

A week or more after it was brought to its attention, eBay has plugged a hole in its sign-on page that was being exploited by phishers.

The vulnerability was noteworthy because it led users to eBay's official login page first, unlike most phishing attacks, which direct victims to a spoofed URL. Once a user entered a valid user name and password on the eBay site, however, the exploit redirected the person to a third-party site of an attacker's choosing.

We brought the vulnerability to the attention of an eBay spokesman eight days ago, and a blogger on jjncj.com said he had alerted eBay of the problem several days before that. What he got in response was a form letter from eBay security. "In the future, be very cautious of any email that asks you to submit information such as your credit card numbers or passwords," it read in part.

Complete Story Here

The Ebay Police Blotter

Just stumbled on this one while looking for something totally different...

The Global Law Enforcement Operations Team (huh?) at Ebay posts this about the Ebay Police Blotter:

"Hello! and welcome to the Global Law Enforcement Operations Police Blotter. Most Community members have not heard much about what eBay does behind the scenes to pursue, apprehend and prosecute fraudsters on ebay.com and paypal.com. The purpose of the Police Blotter is to share information with the Community about our efforts with law enforcement around the world. As you know, eBay Inc. is committed to creating a safe, well lit marketplace. When people break our policies, violate consumer trust and the law of the land, eBay and PayPal work with law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend and prosecute fraudsters. For that reason, eBay created the Global Law Enforcement Operations team."

Right. OK... good idea I suppose. But in a slightly more perfect world the vast majority of resources belong in checks and balances to prevent fraud. Its great that the Global Law Enforcement Operations Team is standing by to bust those engaging in auction fraud. Not so great that we need such a thing. (cool name though)

The link to the page is Here

Internet Scams to Watch for in 2007

By Leslie McFadden
Bankrate.com

In 2007, cybercriminals will explore new territory. They'll launch attacks using consumer-collaborative sites such as MySpace and YouTube, instant messaging, image spam, send more targeted phishing scams and launch networks of zombie computers.

If you're not careful, you could install malicious software -- malware -- that will open up your PC to criminals. Or fall for a money-making scam.

Malware

Malware is an umbrella term for various types of malicious software or programs, including viruses, Trojan horses, worms and spyware. Most of what malware targets is confidential information, says David Marcus, security research and communications manager for McAfee Avert Labs. Malware writers look for data they can steal for a profit or use themselves, he says. "It's very financially motivated."

Unfortunately, cybercriminals can profit off consumers in a host of ways whether they're stealing money or information. Malware can search for passwords on a user's computer or install keystroke-logging software, among other exploits. Fraudsters generate revenue when someone clicks on their spam or through renting out networks of compromised computers called "botnets" to other cybercriminals.

Continue Here

J.K. Rowling Suing Ebay over Pirated Harry Potter Books

The Times Online
Jack Malvern

In fiction his enemies are evil wizards and magical beasts, but Harry Potter’s latest adversary is a real corporation with a turnover of more than £2 billion.

J. K. Rowling, Harry’s creator, is suing the online auction hosting service eBay after unscrupulous sellers used the Indian version of the website to sell unauthorised versions of her books.

Rowling is not the first person to sue the website for breach of copyright, but she has won a unique victory by obtaining an injunction that prohibits eBay from listing illegal copies of her work. The court order is a setback for eBay because it is the first time the company has been obliged to police its sellers’ auctions for copyrighted material.

Ebay, which is also fighting similar complaints by Tiffany in New York and Christian Dior Couture in Paris, denies that it is responsible for the auctions its users conduct on its website, and claims that it is impractical for it to vet every sale.

Continue Here

Ebay Stamp Forgery Scam

By
Mike Brunker
Projects Team editor
MSNBC

It may be the stickiest scam on the Internet — a nine-year saga of deceit that has seen thousands of altered postage stamps sold to unwitting collectors on eBay and other Internet auction sites. More striking than its longevity, though, is that the mastermind has never been charged with a crime, even though his identity apparently is known to eBay security, law enforcement officials and some of the nation’s leading stamp experts.

The man believed to be behind the scheme is a longtime stamp dealer living in upstate New York. He has been investigated by law enforcement, suspended by eBay and exposed in Internet forums devoted to stamp collecting. Yet the massive operation continues to churn out philatelic fakes, burning collectors and, some say, undermining the very foundations of the hobby.

Complete Story Here

Mysterious 'Vladuz' Once AGAIN Hacks eBay

As reported by Dan Goodin in the U.K Register 2/23/07

A hacker has once again managed to pilfer eBay credentials that allow him to masquerade as an official company representative even as he taunts eBay officials on the company's message boards. It's at least the second time the person going by the name Vladuz has pulled off the prank, which is causing many users to question the adequacy of eBay security.

The hacker, said to be living in Romania, claims to have acquired the ability to penetrate the company's perimeter at will. Combined with a rash of hacked accounts, the assertion has created a small but vocal group of users who believe eBay is covering up a massive back door in its defenses.

"Ugh, eBay is so rude *haha*" the intruder said in one post, left late on Thursday, California time.

eBay officials strenuously deny there is any such back door. They admit Vladuz was able to pilfer a limited number of credentials needed to pose as a customer service representative, but insist the servers that administer those functions are balkanized from databases where sensitive information such as customer records are kept.

More here


Is "Ebay security" an oxymoron?....

Vendor Security Lapse Has eBay Sellers Fuming

As posted by Ira Steiner on the Auctionbytes Blog February 17, 2007.

A list of eBay sellers containing names, addresses, and user names and passwords was discovered online this week. On Tuesday, eBay users began buzzing about the list in a thread entitled, "Is eBay like the Titanic" on the eBay Trust & Safety board, with someone including a link to the list.

eBay removed the link, according to eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy. "The link was taken down for obvious reasons. The boards are not to be used to promote illegal activities," he said. But the remaining posts made it clear users remained concerned and angry.

Durzy told AuctionBytes on Friday afternoon that the data was several years old. eBay believed the data was the result of users giving out their passwords to scammers through phishing emails, and had no reason to believe the rumor that the information came from a third-party developer.

But several hours later, an eBay member sent AuctionBytes an active link to a list of customer names on Prosperpoint, a developer that provides eBay sellers with auction-management services.

Continue Here

Police Break up European Ebay Gang

An Oceans 11-style crime syndicate that carried out more than 200 highly planned jewellery raids across Europe has been smashed by police.

Forces in seven European countries have broken up the network which channeled more than £25m from jewel heists into drugs and real estate.

The money came from highly choreographed raids on jewellers, mainly in northern Italy, with the goods fenced on eBay and through pawn shops, Europol said. Police made 35 arrests after swooping on the homes of suspects in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Spain, France and Germany.

Complete story

Convicted Ebay Scammer Loses Appeal

By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com


What: eBay scammer was convicted of interstate robbery and acquitted of a gun charge, but he received a higher sentence from a judge based on the gun charge anyway. He lost his appeal of the higher sentence earlier this month.

When: U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rules on February 7.

Outcome: Sentence of more than 16 years in prison based on a gun charge is upheld.

What happened, according to court documents: Dewan Anthony Horne had invented a scam that was both cunning and criminal. He would advertise vintage "muscle cars" for sale on eBay and offer a good price. Once Horne struck up a conversation with a prospective buyer, he'd suggest coming to Indianapolis and paying for the car in cash or the equivalent.

The hitch: the cars for sale didn't exist. When the would-be purchaser showed up at a garage on the east side of Indianapolis, Horne and at least one gun-toting accomplice would attempt to rob the eBay buyer of the cash and anything else of value.

Horne didn't seem very good at his line of work. Beyond the detail of being nabbed by the police, court documents indicate that he managed to complete only one robbery. ......

Complete Article Here

Hacked Ebay Accounts and Conspiracy Theorys

Roswell, the Kennedys and a hacker named Vladuz

The Register
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
Published Tuesday 20th February 2007 22:38 GMT

Eagle-eyed conspiracy buffs have pounced on a recent rash of compromised eBay user accounts as proof of a mile-wide hole in the auctioneer's front lines, giving new life to a theory that could one day rival the intrigue surrounding Roswell UFO crashing and Kennedy assassinations.

Details remained sketchy, and of course, eBay managers have assembled the requisite wall of plausible deniability, but here's what we've pieced together so far: Over the past few days, several dozen eBay auctions - many selling pricey items such as Cartier Tank watches - have been hijacked by crooks who append legitimate auctions with notes suggesting would-be buyers contact a Gmail account for a special, "buy-it-now" discount.

An eBay spokesman says all indications suggest that the accounts were compromised through plain-vanilla phishing techniques, in which unwitting users fall prey to spoofed emails and give passwords to their attackers. End of story, right?

Not quite. While the more timid among us would be tempted to agree with the company's party line, a chorus of eBay critics say there is something much more nefarious going on. They argue the episode is the latest proof of the existence of back door that has been built into the company's corporate network, allowing an attacker or a cadre of attackers to siphon login credentials and other confidential information from the site's users.

Read complete article here

Savvy Mom Snares Ebay Thief

By Dave Lieber
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Kim Vaughan's nickname on eBay, America's largest Internet auction Web site, is Momof4kidsathome.

It should be Detective Columbo.

Dissatisfied with the pace of Colleyville police in tracking down thieves who burglarized her family car and two other vehicles in her subdivision, she used the Internet to locate the stolen items.

The Bedford teenager who thought he could anonymously place them on eBay was in for a surprise. Within days, Vaughan knew his name and address. She even talked to him on the phone.

For her work, her neighbors praise her. An eBay spokeswoman calls what she did "consumer action at its best."

But in serving as her own watchdog, she put herself at risk and frustrated police.

The case of the amateur detective began 24 days ago when Vaughan's 4-year-old son, playing with her car keys, accidentally pushed a button that left her SUV unlocked for the night.
The next morning she noticed that her $389 GPS device was missing. She called the guard at the subdivision's front gate to learn whether any car burglaries had been reported overnight. None had, but within hours Vaughan learned of other victims.

A neighbor who also left a vehicle unlocked reported a missing iPod. Other neighbors, former Colleyville Mayor Donna Arp and her husband, Bruce Lotter, told her that a BlackBerry and camera were missing from Lotter's car.

On a hunch, Vaughan visited eBay.com. Much to her surprise, a GPS device similar to hers popped up for sale by someone in adjacent Bedford.

Read Complete Story Here

U.K. Ebay Seller Banned for Life Over Fixed Auctions

ONE of Britain’s top eBay traders has been banned from the auction site for life after a Sunday Times investigation found that an account in the name of his ex-wife had allegedly been used to bid up the price of goods that he was selling.

Computer records show that Eftis Paraskevaides, an antiquities dealer from Cambridgeshire, took bids from his former wife’s eBay account on at least 400 items. The link between seller and bidder had been hidden from customers and eBay officials because the transactions were made in her maiden name.

Read complete story here

How Ebay Sellers Fix Auctions

This from the Times Online:

CUSTOMERS of the internet auction site eBay are being defrauded by unscrupulous dealers who secretly bid up the price of items on sale to boost profits. An investigation by The Sunday Times has indicated that the practice of artificially driving up prices — known as shill bidding — is widespread across the site.

Last week one of the UK’s biggest eBay sellers admitted in a taped conversation with an undercover reporter that he was prepared to use business associates to bid on his goods for him.

Our inquiries found evidence that a number of businesses — ranging from overseas property agencies to car dealerships — have placed bids on their own items using fake identities.

The cases raise questions about whether eBay, the world’s biggest auction site, is doing enough to protect consumers.


Full Story Here

Spam is Back and Worse than Ever

Friday, January 19 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

If you feel like your inbox is suddenly overrun with spam again, you are right.

Not long ago, there seemed hope that spam had passed its prime. Just last December, the Federal Trade Commission published an optimistic state-of-spam report, citing research indicating spam had leveled off or even dropped during the previous year.

Instead, it now appears spammers had simply gone back to the drawing board. There's more spam now than ever before. In fact, there's twice as much spam now as opposed to this time last year.

Go here to read an excellent post on this subject

Phishers Luring Victims with False Claims of Ebay Closure

Sophos is warning computer users of a new phishing scam that tries to steal usernames and passwords from eBay users by claiming the giant auction website will close for business on February 17th.

The emails state that eBay has decided to shut down its business at the end of February, and request that recipients vote on whether they agree with the decision. According to the message, 50 percent of eBay members are required to disagree in order to keep the site open. However, clicking on either of the voting links takes the recipient to a phishing website which poses as eBay, and is designed to steal information from users

The email reads:

'Dear eBay Community: We have decided to close eBay on 27 February 2007 due to the repeatedly abuses on our company. We ask your opinion on this matter and we want to know if you agree with us or disagree .Below you can make your choice. If you want eBay to stay open click YES otherwise click NO .Your opinion is very important to us. If 50% of the eBay members vote positive eBay stays open otherwise it will be closed. Regards, eBay Team'


Link to original Sophos article

Cyberdefenders Latest Phishing Scam Alerts

LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) January 12, 2007 --

CyberDefender™ Corporation, the security developer with the Internet's most advanced early detection technology and Internet security tools, has released its latest Phishing Scam Alert, a report highlighting recent phishing and email scams that are plaguing Internet users and exposing them to Internet identity theft.

CyberDefender™ Corporation, the security developer with the Internet's most advanced early detection technology and Internet security tools, has released its latest Phishing Scam Alert, a report highlighting recent phishing and email scams that are plaguing Internet users and exposing them to Internet identity theft. Top risks include new active PayPal, eBay and egg.com phishing scams targeting Internet users. CyberDefender Threat Level: Active Scam Target pages: www.paypal.com Scam URL: http://202.29.138.73:84/www.pa. . . Date Discovered: 01/09/07 13:04:30 CyberDefender Threat Level: Active Scam Target pages: www.egg.com Scam URL: http://www.evsolution.ro/_host. . . Date Discovered: 01/08/07 21:40:00 CyberDefender Threat Level: Active Scam Target pages: www.ebay.com Scam URL: http://singin-account-verify.f. . . CyberDefender classifies emerging phishing scams as active or inactive, providing users with a real-time Internet security tool for phishing protection.

Complete article here

Denver Schools Find Missing Computers on Ebay

By Monte Whaley
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Created: 01/10/2007

Two suspects in a school-computer burglary ring figured they had the perfect place to fence their ill-gotten goods, authorities say: the online auction house, eBay.

Unfortunately for the arrested teenagers, school officials had the same idea.

Acting on a hunch, Poudre School District security personnel checked eBay on Jan. 4, after the latest in a string of break-ins at schools in Larimer County.

"They were sitting around thinking, 'Now where would those things turn up?"' said Fort Collins police School Resource Officer Suzanne Rice. "Sure enough, they took a gander, and there they were."

Up for bid were what appeared to be most of the 32 computers and other electronic equipment taken from Fossil Ridge High School.

Police and school officials contacted eBay, which passed along profile information that led to the arrests of two male 17-year-olds who now face burglary and theft charges.

Link to News Story

Paypal Testing New Device to Beat Phishing Scams

Paypal is currently testing a new device to help keep user accounts secure. The Paypal Security Key is a small pocket sized device that generates a unique six digit security code every 30 seconds. Users enter the security code when logging in to their Paypal or Ebay accounts with their regular user name and password. The code used to sign in expires every 30 seconds, providing a higher level of security.

The device may be ordered from Paypal for a one time $5.00 fee. Business accounts are exempt from the fee. The key uses a two-factor authentication system which was designed by Verisign

For more information and demo:
https://www.paypal.com/eBay/securitykey